4 Tools to Help Cops Digitally Detox
Jan 14, 2024
Toxin: [noun] a poisonous substance which, when introduced into the body, causes harm.
Several months ago, I was in my baby’s room, and while I can’t remember what exactly I was supposed to be doing, I was not fully present for it because I was completely engrossed with what I was doing on my phone. My wife (who saw my absentmindedness from another room with the baby monitor) stormed in and took over. She didn’t have to say anything… I knew I screwed up. As someone who grew up in an era without phones, where on the average Saturday, I’d be miles away from home on my bicycle with my friends, and as someone who didn’t get a phone with internet access until adulthood, admitting that I might be addicted to my device was tough.
The above incident was one of a few events that triggered a desire to change my digital habits.
A quick Google search will tell you that the average American spends 3-4 hours a day on their devices. For iPhone users, you can hop on your “screen time” and see how many hours a day you spend. It’s probably going to be more than you think. With social media apps, texts, email, and other things we are CONSTANTLY picking up our phones and using them.
Phones and other devices are supposed to make us communicate more efficiently and be more productive. The problem is that there are tons of ways these devices are toxic in their impact on our lives and health. You can go down quite the rabbit hole on what our devices are doing to our brains, but I’ll touch on just a few things:
Many applications are designed in a way to foster addiction. You may have heard the saying “if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” This holds especially true for many social media sources—there’s a financial interest in keeping you scrolling and engaged for as long as possible.
What I described above is literally changing your brain—it is decreasing cognitive abilities, attention spans, social skills and how we process things like dopamine.
I won’t go into tons of detail because people are literally writing books on the topic and my purpose in doing what I do is always the “so what?”
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So what? What can I do about this?
I’ll preface this with the acknowledgement that I’m not perfect—I don’t have everything figured out and there are days that I’ve definitely fallen off the wagon and doom-scrolled endlessly. These are simply some techniques that may help you in your own quest to live your life better and digitally detox a bit.
Application Limits and Productivity Applications
I have not tested any of the applications designed to help you limit your screen time, so I can’t speak on them; I have used my iPhone’s “screen time” and set limits. The problem for me personally is that I too frequently hit the ignore option when the notice comes up that I’ve hit the max minutes of activity I’ve set for myself. While I generally have a high level of discipline, when it comes to this specific topic, I know I’m a rather impulsive individual (if it’s there I’ll use it).
Physical Barrier
We have a dog gate that blocks off the front living room (to keep our German Shepherd mix from breaking our front window when the mailman comes). I used this as a way to help me with cutting down on device usage. When I’d get home from work, I’d drop my work and personal phones on the rack by my front door. This worked two-fold. First, by having distance from my phones, it limited the thoughtless phone checking that frequently occurs when my device is in reach. Secondly, it helped me be more deliberate—when I was going to use my phone, I had to open a gate to get there, I’d use it while standing by the rack, and then set it back down.
Physical Item on the Phone Screen
This is a recent tool I’ve added that I think is quite effective for me. I tried tape in the middle of the screen but that interfered too much with accessing items, so I’ve switched to a rubber band around the entire phone screen. Having something that slightly interferes with viewing the screen, but also having something there to remind me to cut down on phone usage is something that has been helpful for me.
Grayscale
An additional new tool I’ve started using is switching my phone to grayscale. This just makes the phone less interesting and visually appealing. For iPhone users, it’s an “accessibility” setting that can be toggled on and off quickly if you set up shortcuts.
As I said above, I’m still working on figuring it all out. Between running multiple social media pages, constantly needing to be in communication for my Army unit, and being on call for my full time LE job, my digital devices can be quite a drain on my family life and personal productivity. I hope the tools I’ve described are helpful to you if you’re experiencing similar issues. I’m always ears for more ideas and feedback: [email protected].
Digitally detox. Be present.
